Carrefour is closing, the supermarket forced to make a very tough decision: employees are shocked by the news.

Carrefour will sell all its stores in Italy, with many employees at risk of being laid off.

One of the country's historic supermarket chains is about to leave the country. Carrefour has been present in Italy since 1993 with over 1,200 stores spread across the country's 20 regions, but its management has decided to leave within three years, leaving unions with considerable concern for the fate of their employees.

Revenues have been declining since 2022 , despite the Covid period having increased revenues, and current profit records numbers that justify this drastic decision, with a recovery plan that has been designed but does not provide the necessary guarantees.

In this regard, a strike was called on July 21st to demand greater employment protections at Carrefour Italia's production units and to ensure that this relaunch takes place as planned.

A demonstration of the sensitive nature of the issue is the upcoming meeting between Minister of Enterprise and Made in Italy Adolfo Urso and Salerno entrepreneur Angelo Mastrolia to discuss the future of over 13,000 employees.

Carrefour bids farewell to the Italian market, closing all its stores.

Carrefour will sell its stores to the NewPrinces Group, which has already completed numerous transactions in Italy, starting with the acquisition of Newlat in 2008, previously owned by the Parmalat group, and ending with the Buitoni brand.

With this acquisition, NewPrinces becomes the second largest group in terms of turnover in the food sector, thus following up on the expansion project that had been announced with an industrial plan up to 2030 .

Supermarkets are also in crisis, the new challenge to beat the competition

It will not be easy to deal with the current economic crisis and a drop in consumption , the main reason that led Carrefour to close the last financial year with a deficit of 150 million euros.

The main challenge will be to avoid job losses by making the brand familiar with an advertising campaign that will have to push a significant number of Italians to choose NewPrinces over rival chains for their daily shopping, with initial discounts that will have to bring immediate benefits in terms of the balance sheet, net of the investments made.